Nebraska football: Gary Patterson news latest bummer in bummer of a season
Turns out the Nebraska football team could have had Gary Patterson. Instead, we got Bo Pelini and a program on the brink.
On Thursday an interview with TCU head coach Gary Patterson by ESPN revealed that he had interviewed for the head coach position for the Nebraska football team a few years back. In that interview Patterson let it be known that he felt the Huskers AD, Tom Osborne had already landed on Bo Pelini as the replacement for Bill Callahan.
That decision, a decision that is a bit inexplicable changed the course of Nebraska and TCU history as well as the immediate future. For the Huskers, it’s possible the decision is going to have far-reaching effects.
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We all know that Pelini didn’t work out. What you may not understand is just how odd that decision was at the time. Yes, TCU has hit new heights in the last few years, but Patterson already had his Horned Frogs in a pretty good place when he spoke to Nebraska.
In the early years of Patterson’s reign at TCU he posted a record of 62-25. Compare that to Pelini’s resume at the time of his hiring. He had been a defensive coordinator for a few teams, including one season for the Cornhuskers.
After the decision to hire Pelini over Patterson or anyone else, TCU has gone 87-29. They are also 8-1 this season. The Huskers, meanwhile are about to be on their third head coach.
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We’ll likely never know if there was a reason to hire Pelini over Patterson beyond Tom Osborne’s odd fixation on hiring someone, anyone, with Nebraska football ties. What we do know is that the Cornhuskers standing in the college football world would be vastly different had the TCU coach brought his talents to Lincoln.